On Sunday I went out and bought a can of Vinyl and Plastic 'Coating'. It was the only product for Vinyl both Wal Mart and Autozone carries. I also bought a KK2 set with the red knight to experiment. The product I bought was:

Now I followed the directions I had read online about dying computer cover parts, spraying about 12 inches away in a sweeping motion. I took five minute breaks, allowing the 'coating' to dry.

Well, what I got resembles stone. Not bad, but definately not what I was going for.

So I went to a different website, one with close up pictures, and it definately looked nothing like what I had, and everything I was trying to achieve. I obviously had not bought genuine Vinyl Dye.

So once again I went out, this time to O'Reilly's auto parts. Hidden on a shelf, not with the paints, was a product called:

Mar-Hyde Vinyl Color Spray

This stuff looked like the real deal. The first named ingrediant? Acetone! That's right, everyone's favorite plastic-melting compound.

From what I read, this is exactly what I wanted.

So I bit the bullet, and subjected my favorite KK2 knight, the purple one, to the knife, so to speak.

Once again, I followed the same procedure - long distance sweeping motions, taking breaks between. This new stuff said it dries in 15 minutes, and can be subjected to weather in 2 hours. The other can didn't even mention a time frame.

So the result? I know you're tired of my write up.

Here are the two visors. Remember, the red knight's visor (right) got the Vinyl "Coating", while the purple knight's visor (left) got the Vinyl Dye.

Without Flash:

With Flash:

Modeling the product:

The purple knight's visor's color most closely resembles new dark bley, from what I can tell. Not too bad, I must say. Its' very smooth, it hardly looks like it got a color treatment at all. I didn't even have to pre-coat it in white.

I know that O'Reilly's sells black, off-white, tan, dark blue, and this 'silver smoke'. There are many websites that offer a much broader color range, but their cans were $17 each. The Stone-like 'coating' cost me $3.50, the Vinyl Dye cost me $4.50.

--Anthony

Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day.Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. they both look very nice indeed. Purple knight definitely looks better for use as an actual knight. Red knight definitely looks useable as a statue. Will have to find me some of this stuff. One question though. Did you spray inside the helmet as well? Just interested as to if or if not the plastic becomes any larger with this coating of vinyl paint? I know you stated that vinyl paint absorbs into the plastic. But if one were to use it on, say, a minifig head and helmet would they still fit together??

Wow... this worked really well on both counts! The purple knight looks very official, as others have said - but I actually prefer the first knight... he seems like the perfect horde knight, or some sort of barbarian.

This was a very nice experiment - I'm tempted to get some of the other colors now that I've seen what you've managed to pull off.

Knight Templar n. pl. Knights Templars or Knights Templar1.A member of an order of knights founded about 1118 to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade.

Oooo those are nice. I kind of like the first one too, for a specific use like someone else mentioned– it'd be neat to construct a statue (figure, base, etc.) and then spray the whole thing at once. I bet that'd look nice and stony.

Too bad there's no O'Reilly car part store near me. Both of them look really good in my opinion, with the second one looking smoother, and the first one looking like he has a textured stone effect. Great experiment Anthony

lil Jon wrote:Did anything happen to the plastic, like it getting soft and weak, or brittle?

Nope, the plastic is just as it was before.

Suvied wrote:Is it still purple on the inside?

Not for long. I first need to build a rig (probably just a vertical toothpick or bent paperclips) to hold the visor off the ground slightly, just so it doesn't sit in the excess dye (the dye dries like paint if it is not absorbed into a porous material).

kingkastle wrote:One question though. Did you spray inside the helmet as well? Just interested as to if or if not the plastic becomes any larger with this coating of vinyl paint? I know you stated that vinyl paint absorbs into the plastic. But if one were to use it on, say, a minifig head and helmet would they still fit together??

I don't see why not. I did not observe any sort of build-up or any related growth in dimensions on the purple visor. The red visor, on the other hand, does have a noticeable layer.

MaxiVisVires wrote:Now does the color of the plastic had anything to do with how the treatment of the dyes turned out? Did the texture of the plastic change?

I thought the color of the plastic mattered at first, because the color on the purple visor is much darker than the color on the can, but looking back at my aluminum foil, the excess dye is the same color. My conclusion is that as far as purple is concerned, the color did not play any role in the final color outcome.

As for texture, the red visor has a very stoney texture, very rough, but that wasn't Vinyl Dye I used. The Purple visor doesn't have any decernable texture, though the gloss has been dulled down.

HenrytheV wrote:Too bad there's no O'Reilly car part store near me.

You should be able to find Vinyl Dye at any larger auto parts store. Heck, even mom and pop auto part stores sell em around here (now that I know). Plasti-Kote is the brand of choice by the feller whom I learned about Vinyl Dye. After looking at their website I know of 6 places locally that sell that brand.

--Anthony

Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day.Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Wow. I have been really out of the loop for a bit.
both visors are interesting (a stone armored group would be wild!) but I am interested in getting some of this vinyl dye. I thought it was just paint.
So does it actually bond with the plastic then? with paint, you can get something to take paint off with (I had some stuff that didnt melt the plastic) and repaint it if you want, but I gather the dye is permanent?
seems a better deal to me...